Buñuelos — a lucky holiday tradition

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, December 29, 2010

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Rafael Chapa cuts the dough into round pieces before they head for the fryer at the The Original HemisFair Buñuelo company. The company has been making the sweet treats since 1968. HELEN L. MONTOYA/hmontoya@express-news.net

What do black-eyed peas and a crispy, cinnamon-and-sugar-dusted pastry have in common?

In a word: luck.

Many Southerners eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day to guarantee good luck in the coming year; similarly, many people of Hispanic heritage believe buñuelos bring good luck when eaten during the holiday season.

Given the choice between leaving my fate to a legume (even with a ham hock thrown in) and a decadently rich fritter, I would trust my luck to the latter, even if no one really knows why buñuelos are considered so auspicious.

It is known they evolved out of the Arab and Sephardic Jewish cultures in Spain. When these groups were forced to leave that country during the Spanish Inquisition, they took their food traditions with them.

Buñuelos vary in shape, size and ingredients, depending on the country or region they come from. They are savory fried cheese balls in Colombia, twisted into a figure-eight in Cuba, made from yucca in Nicaragua, and in Texas, resemble a puffy flour tortilla on steroids.

In Mexico, Buñuelos de Viento are made using a decorative rosette iron (molde in Spanish) that is heated, dipped in batter and plunged into hot oil to create fanciful shapes so light they almost float on air.

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Though buñuelos have been a popular tradition in Spanish-speaking countries for centuries, they were only recently popularized in the United States — thanks to a world's fair in San Antonio.

Tips for success

Tony Specia says to cook the buñuelos in pure peanut oil for the best results.

The texture and flavor improve after the cooked buñuelos have rested for awhile.

Tony Specia, owner of The Original HemisFair Buñuelos company, says in 1968, he and friend David Carter were talking about the world's fair coming to San Antonio and thought, “Wouldn't it be nice to be a part of it?”

Trying to come up with an idea, Specia recalled a crispy sweet treat called a buñuelo that his wife's grandmother, Mary Ashley Culp, made on special occasions. Culp traced the recipe back many generations in her family to Señora Trinidad Bustillos Guitierrez, a descendant of the Canary Islanders who immigrated to San Antonio in 1731.

Specia procured the recipe, and after some experimentation, he and Carter introduced buñuelos at HemisFair, where the pastries were an immediate hit. Buñuelo cones, or “torches,” filled with mango ice cream were also popular, and vending machines dispensed packets of smaller versions of the crispy treats. Buñuelos quickly became the most popular snack item at the world's fair.

Specia says the original name they chose was Crispa Buñuelos, but it was soon shortened to simply buñuelos, which can still be a challenge to pronounce. “People pronounce it all kind of ways,” Specia says. “I say ‘buhn-way-lo,' but a lot of people will say, ‘buhn-yu-wey-lo' — it's kind of a tongue twister.”

Buñuelos may be a tongue twister, but they are also a mouth pleaser. Specia says “production is between 3,000 and 4,000 a day,” adding, “business picks up during Christmas time, New Year's and Fiesta.”

The recipe for a HemisFair buñuelo is deceptively simple; the basic ingredients are flour, shortening, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. “But it's the syrup I make that gives it the flavor,” says Specia, who's the “only one who knows it.”

In addition to flavor, the syrup helps control the bubbles in the dough, Specia says. “That's tricky,” he says. “We had to work on that.” He says even the temperature of the factory can affect the results.

“A lot of people when they come in, say, ‘My mother used to make these,'” Specia says. “But it's labor intensive, so people don't make them at home like they used to.”

It does take considerable effort to roll the dough thin enough. In Mexico, the traditional way to achieve the proper thinness was for a woman to stretch the dough over her bare knee. Now, that's what I call lucky!

The Original HemisFair Buñuelos come in 6- and 3-inch sizes, as well as cup shapes used to hold fillings. Tube-shaped cannoli are available by special order. They are available at the factory, located at 108 Auditorium Circle (by Municipal Auditorium) and at 5917 San Pedro Ave. at Basse Road.